El Roundup Latin@ American@ – News from Latin America

It’s time for a new installment of our weekly feature of news from El Sur!

To reiterate my call from last week, my list of sources and issues is likely to be incomplete, so, I’d like to put out a call for Latin American bloggers/ writers/ content producers who write in English about Latin America, and especially bloggers or writers who are touching upon gender/ equality/ LGBTQ issues, and would like to share a post or opinion piece at “El Roundup Latin@ American@”, contact me and I’ll be happy to post them in future editions. I am not including the Caribbean Region in my roundup because it is one I am not entirely familiar with (we share many cultural traits, but each region faces unique situations). However, if bloggers, writers, opinion makers from the Caribbean would like to share links I’ll be very happy to include them as well.

Pentagon Using Drug Wars as Excuse to Build Bases in Latin America [New America Media] Under the auspices of the drug war, the United States is returning to its historical pattern of using Central America and the Caribbean for its own military and strategic purposes. Even as a growing chorus of voices throughout Latin America argue that military responses to drug trafficking are ineffective against the narcotics trade and exacerbate existing human rights abuses and official corruption, the U.S. military presence in the region is growing.

Mexico’s Zetas “corrupts” U.S. agents says DHS official [The Latin Americanist] As part of testimony grated to the Senate subcommittee on national security, [U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) and Customs acting Inspector General] Edwards said that the Zetas offer “cash bribes, sexual favor and other services in exchange for smuggling contraband or illegal immigrants through border inspection areas.

Disputed Frida Kahlo archive may be authentic, Mexican court rules [LA Times] A breathless story in the online Art Newspaper reported heated claims that the previously unknown cache was fake. The charges were made by a dozen American and Mexican art dealers, critics and historians, all of whom share a vested interest in Kahlo’s robust market and the publishing business around it.

Ghosts of Guatemala’s Past [NYTimes.com] IN 1954, the American government committed one of the most reprehensible acts in its history when it authorized the C.I.A. to overthrow the democratically elected leader of Guatemala, President Jacobo Arbenz.[…] Guatemalan society has only recently recovered from the suffering that this intervention caused, including brutal military dictatorships and a genocidal civil war against its Indian population, which led to the deaths of an estimated 200,000 people.

Venezuela: Relations with US are ‘frozen’ [BusinessWeek] Venezuela’s top diplomat says relations with the United States are “frozen” and President Hugo Chavez’s government does not perceive any possibility of improving them after Washington imposed sanctions on the South American nation’s state oil company.

Giant open-pit mine raises questions in Uruguay [AFP] A plan to build a giant open pit mine has created a sharp rift between those who think Uruguay’s rich agricultural land should be protected, and those wanting to exploit its wealth. The Aratiri project, owned by Zamin Ferrous, a London-based minerals company, will cost an estimated $2.5 billion (1.7 million Euros), the largest mining project ever in South America.

ARGENTINA: Avoidable Maternal Deaths on the Rise [IPS ipsnews.net] Argentina is moving backwards in terms of maternal mortality, with a rate three times higher than those of its neighbours Chile and Uruguay. Maternal deaths, which are actually increasing, are often the result of unsafe abortions, in a country where the practice is illegal.

This was written by Flavia Dzodan. Posted on Saturday, June 11, 2011, at 6:26 am. Filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

The NY Times seems overly optimistic in “Ghosts of Guatemala’s Past” to claim that Guatemala has “only recently recovered” – it hasn’t recovered. An interesting and timely article on the matter would be “Guatemala’s Crippled Peace Process: A Look Back on the 1996 Peace Accords” (May 10, 2011), available at website for the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, coha.org.

In a nutshell: “The Peace Accords supposedly marked a new era of democracy and rule of law for Guatemala, but the country still has yet to meet most of the sweeping development goals outlined in the agreement. While the Peace Accords have barely managed to stall Guatemala from falling back into a full scale civil war, it has failed to bring the country any closer to a democratic and egalitarian society.”

NB: I am a U.S. immigration attorney in private practice and a great many of my clients are from Central America, including Guatemala.

Also, as part of my standing research on country conditions various clients come from (including re: protection for LGBTi persons and indigenous persons), I keep bookmarks on delicious under the username sidravitale. Feel free to browse.